RIGHT now, friends of Mark Green are locking up all the sharp instruments in his house because – in my lifetime, at least – he will never be mayor.

“Thank God we don’t have to deal with Mark Green as a mayor who would have turned back the clock of all the good things Giuliani did for this city,” said Mike Long, who is head of the state Conservative Party, which can deliver from 250,000 to 350,000 votes to a Senate candidate.

Of course, Long wasn’t too hot on Rudy because of his support of partial-birth abortion.

So yesterday, Long was happy on two counts.

“We have been saved from Green and this is a golden opportunity to send Hillary Rodham Clinton back to Arkansas, Illinois or Washington or wherever,” he told me. “And this not a bad thing.”

Long, a very canny conservative, has a theory on what the pollsters ignore – and what the pundits hardly see.

“They [Rudy and Hillary] were both high-profile candidates, but they were like two huge buildings leaning on each other, her negatives versus his negatives,” Long was saying.

“Now that Rudy has pulled out for the best interests of his health and his family, her building, with all her negatives, collapses.”

Long talks loudly about things that are only whispered about in Democratic back rooms.

“Don’t for one minute think that New York State Democrats were happy or comfortable about Mrs. Clinton, who never worked here, never paid taxes here, and flew in on a carpet and said ‘This is mine,’ ” he said.

One only has to think of the arrogance that Hillary displayed towards a very good lady named Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Westchester). Nita couldn’t even raise money for a potential Senate run, waiting for Princess Hillary to decide whether she would run.

“Stay put, woman, until I decide,” was the royal command from Hillary and that’s exactly what Nita did.

She had to sit on her hands until she was told, “Bug off.”

Clinton arrogance, once again, run amok.

“Clearly the mayor, who has done an outstanding job for the city and will continue to do so, has made the right decision for his health and for his family and we have been saved from a Green disaster,” Long was saying.

But where does that leave Long’s Conservative Party endorsement which carries a bucket full of votes?

The name most mentioned is Rep Rick Lazio (R-L.I.)

“He is pro-choice but against partial-birth abortion, a mixed bag,” Long said. “Peter King has expressed real interest, as has Vito Fossella of Staten Island. All are good candidates. But I think at this stage we are looking closely at Joe DioGuardi, who closely follows the principles of the Conservative Party.”

Long knows more than I do, but Lazio or King seem a better bet.

“I have never seen a political year like this in my life,” Long was saying. “And there will be a lot of meetings with us and the governor and Bill Powers [state GOP chairman].”

But there is a lingering sadness here.

Rudy has taken himself off the national stage.

And even if you think his approach is draconian (and it is), he didn’t look at polls and he could have put some fresh air in that gentleman’s club called The Senate.

He looked, instead, at the bottom line. And said “Let’s clean up this mess.”

There were other heavy hitters in this country who couldn’t quite grasp that Rudy had used a mouse called Disney in Times Square to drive out the rats.

The country was just starting to get the drift.

If Rudy can do it in New York, so can we.

Well, if that sounds like a political obit, it ain’t.

We still have him as the mayor and that’s better news for me than winning a big bet on the Triple Crown.